Photo: Anti-refugee protesters in Jeju (Source: The New York Times)
When five hundred Yemeni refugees arrived on Jeju Island to seek refuge from the ongoing violence of the Yemeni Civil War, South Korea experienced its first big refugee influx. Previous waves of refugees were composed of North Korean defectors who are technically unregistered South Korean citizens. Unlike Yemeni refugees, North Korean defectors belong to the same ethnicity and historical connection and their arrival never challenged the notion of homogeneity in South Korea.
However, the arrival of the Yemeni refugees, who came from a vastly different cultural background and in larger numbers than South Korea had previously encountered, sparked widespread debate and brought the refugee issue into the public spotlight. Miah Park, then IOM head of office in South Korea said that most South Koreans were not aware of the country already having refugees. With the situation being unfamiliar, the news around the Yemeni refugees sparked worry, mostly based on what they knew about the refugee issue in Europe. At the same time, many Yemeni refugees found themselves homeless, crammed into small spaces, and struggling with little food and supplies as they ran out of money.
Why Jeju Island?
Only a few countries, including Malaysia and Ecuador, allow Yemeni passport holders to enter without a visa. Meanwhile, as the Yemeni Civil War raged on, more people were fleeing across the country’s border. One of those locations where Yemenis could travel without a visa was Jeju Island. Additionally, a new affordable flight between Malaysia and Jeju Island started at that time, making it simpler for Yemenis to enter Jeju Island after first arriving in Malaysia. Unlike South Korea, Malaysia didn’t sign the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, and it seemed clear that they were not keen on granting official refugee status to Yemeni refugees. As a result, more refugees arrived than ever before in South Korea’s history. However, South Korea stopped granting Yemenis visa-free access to Jeju Island after facing the abrupt spike in asylum requests.
Refugee Policy and Barriers for Asylum-seeker in South Korea
Photo: Yemeni refugees waiting for consultation at an immigration center in Jeju (Source: Financial Times)
South Korea has maintained a somewhat closed border so far for refugees despite joining the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees in 1992 and then becoming the first country in Asia to introduce refugee law with the aim of domestic implementation adhering to the 1951 convention which came into effect in 2013. This law was partially a result of the pressure from civil society which claimed that an applicant of refugee status in South Korea did not have a fair chance of pleading for their case.
Despite that, the country’s refugee acceptance rate is one of the lowest in the world. After 500 Yemeni refugees came to Jeju Island, only two were legally recognized as refugees after screening. Others received humanitarian stay permits, which are granted when asylum seekers fail to meet the criteria for official refugee status. The humanitarian stay permit recipients must extend their permits every year.
South Korea started accepting refugee applications in 1994, but the numbers tell a tough story. According to the Ministry of Justice, among the 20,974 refugee status applicants between 1994 and 2018, only 4.05% were recognized as refugees, and 7.4% received humanitarian stay permits. On the contrary, a refugee rights group, NANCEN, said that between 1994 and 2020, only 1.5% of applicants were officially granted refugee status.
But why is it so difficult to be recognized as a refugee in South Korea?
A lawyer who represented a Cameroonian boxer, Abdulaye Asan, seeking refugee status, claimed that because South Korea’s screening procedure is focused on weeding out “fake refugees,” there are cases with limitations in judgment for applicants who need protection. In 2016, asylum requests of 28 Syrian nationals were initially rejected before the decision was overruled in court. The Ministry of Justice said that the applicants didn’t have a good reason to apply since they came through “safe” countries like China, Russia, and Turkey. They added that they had to be careful about who they were letting in to make sure people were not just coming for economic reasons.
Janette Rhee from The Refuge pNan an NGO working with refugees in South Korea explained in an interview with Olga Pynenkova from Human Rights Hub, Yonsei University,
“General legal barriers or challenges that refugees face in South Korea include a complex application process, long waiting period leading to an uncertain future, low rates of recognition, the statelessness of children of refugees born in South Korea et cetera”.
On the other hand, though at the beginning the asylum seekers can apply for monthly support from the South Korean government, after six months, they are expected to support themselves. In 2016, only 8.6% of applicants received this assistance, while many refugees faced challenges in finding work due to unstable legal status, discrimination, and language barriers, making it difficult for them to earn a living. According to Janette Rhee,
“The financial support provided by the government is definitely insufficient. Every year, the South Korean government allocates a budget based on prediction. However, the number of refugee applicants has surged, making the allocated budget extremely inadequate. Thus, when applicants apply for support, only a few of them receive it. Since the living support is granted based on various criteria, it is difficult to determine an exact amount, but typically about 300,000 to 400,000 KRW is provided per person monthly.”
When talking about the challenges they face while working with refugees, Rhee says,
“The main challenge that The Refuge pNan faces is the lack of foundational change and support. Most refugees come to us with problems that arise from the system. For instance, the refugee recognition rate is less than 2% and thus people don’t have much other choice than to continue reapplying when rejected. But once you reapply and you don’t have any differences or updates to your reason for application, your alien registration card is taken away and you are given a paper in which you do not have the legal rights to work but are granted a temporary extension of stay which needs to be renewed every three months to avoid deportation. Or the fact that since you do not have access to health insurance, medical fees are very expensive. The Refuge pNan find methods or people to try to help solve these problems but it is always temporary. In Korean, there is a phrase “trying to fill a bottomless jar with water” that is something that we feel when trying to support refugees without fundamental change to the system.”
Acceptance of Refugees: Is it a Question of Cultural Homogeneity?
As a reaction to the arrival of Yemeni refugees in Jeju Island in 2018, there were demonstrations on the roads of Seoul, which showed both the anti-refugee and pro-refugee side of the citizens. The pro-refugee side included citizens and NGOs supporting the Yemeni refugees with shelter, food, medicine, health checkups, and other needs.
Meanwhile, a nationwide petition against South Korea accepting the Yemeni refugees secured over 700,000 signatures representing anti-refugee sentiment. A study shows, one government officer admitted that he was more worn out from handling angry calls from Koreans than dealing with the Yemeni refugees, which provides a picture of the situation. While South Korea has been less accepting of refugees regardless of their background, these reactions raise a question of whether the cultural identity of incoming refugees or asylum seekers plays a role in the level of acceptance. In 2020, Professor Timothy S. Rich and his team surveyed 1,111 South Koreans to see how ethnicity and religion impact public opinion on refugees, showing that only 6.8% strongly opposed North Korean refugees, while the number jumped to 23.2% for non-Korean refugees and 31.8% for Muslim refugees. The study suggests that many South Koreans felt that Islam, which is the religion of Yemeni refugees, doesn’t align with their cultural values, likely influenced by media portrayal of Europe’s refugee crisis and limited interaction with other cultures at home. Some feared that as Yemeni refugees are Muslim, their living in South Korea would dilute the influence of Christianity in the country which reflects the challenges of social integration of Yemeni refugees.
Going beyond refugees, the fact that around 43% of all foreigners in South Korea are ethnic Koreans shows how immigration in South Korea so far has been largely linked with shared ethnicity and history, which shows why the question of integration becomes an issue when it comes to accepting refugees from a very different culture. The anti-immigration sentiment and fear of the culture of the host country being affected by refugees like Yemeni refugees in South Korea can make social integration.
Despite these challenges, there is a lack of effective social integration programs for refugees. As mentioned by Rhee,
“Currently, there are some government-led social integration programs for immigrants. Therefore, refugee applicants whose circumstances differ from immigrants, find it difficult to participate. The existing social-integration programs mainly consist of Korean language classes or cultural experience programs. There are very few meaningful social-integration programs that foster interaction with local communities.”
As we can see, there are two steps of barriers asylum seekers and refugees face in South Korea – first legal challenges with a complex process in place; secondly, social and cultural barriers within a society where multiculturalism is quite a new word. While acknowledging that the concerns regarding “fake refugees” are not invalid; it is evident that a shift in thoughts around refugees and multiculturalism is needed to reduce the hustle faced by valid asylum seekers and refugees as well as for their better social integration. The challenges in the application process Yemeni refugees have faced do not belong to a legal vacuum separated from the anti-immigrant sentiment. Therefore, the South Korean government, citizens, and NGOs need to work together on both steps of barriers asylum seekers and refugees face to create a more refugee-friendly environment and address their human rights.
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